François Hollande has won France’s presidential election, giving the country its first Socialist president in almost two decades, exit polls showed Sunday.

According to Ipsos polling institute, the left-wing candidate took 51.9% of the vote to incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy’s 48.1%.

Hollande triumphed in the task of returning the Socialists to power five years after his then-partner Segolene Royal, the party’s nominee in 2007, lost to Sarkozy.

Celebrations were underway at the iconic Place de la Bastille in central Paris, the same spot where the last Socialist to win a presidential election, François Mitterrand, celebrated his victory back in 1981.

Hollande, who voted on Sunday in the central Corrèze region, which he represents in the French parliament, was considered the frontrunner throughout the campaign, at times leading his rival by as much as 10% in opinion polls.

He finished ahead in the first round on April 22, claiming 28.63% of votes cast against Sarkozy's 27.18%.

In a twin blow to Sarkozy between the two rounds, far-right candidate Marine Le Pen and centrist François Bayrou, who gathered around 18% and 9% respectively, both denied the incumbent an endorsement. Bayrou told supporters his personal vote would go to Hollande, while Le Pen said she would cast a blank vote.

At 79.9%, according to Ipsos, voter turnout was strong, though slightly lower than the figure reached in 2007.

Hollande will be sworn in as France’s president on May 14 or 15.

Winning platform

Sunday's election capped a stunning comeback for Hollande, whose career appeared to be all but over after he left the leadership of the Socialist Party in 2008.

It also marked the end of a year-long campaign for the veteran politician, who won his party’s internal primaries in October of last year, establishing himself from the start as a moderate left-winger with the best chances of appealing to centrists and beating Sarkozy.

Hollande has promised to boost France’s public education system by 60,000 employees and reduce the retirement age from 62 to 60 for people who have completed a minimum 41 years of work.

He also campaigned on a pledge to give all foreigners the right to vote in local elections in line with laws already in place for EU citizens living in France. The Socialist has said he will balance the country’s budget by 2017.

Socialists return to power

Sarkozy became the only the second French president to fail to claim a second mandate since Valéry Giscard d'Estaing was swept out of office in 1981.

It was also the first time the Socialist Party triumphed in a presidential election since Mitterrand's re-election in 1988.

France's Socialists will be hoping to use the vote’s momentum to win back a majority in parliament in elections this June.

Europe’s ongoing debt crisis was likely to take priority in the first weeks of Hollande’s mandate, and his camp showed it would not loose much time celebrating.

Hollande was planning to call German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday evening, Socialist MP Jean-Marc Ayrault told the media earlier in the day. Ayrault, who is also a close advisor and aspiring prime minister to the presumed president-elect added that Hollande would quickly organize a trip to Berlin.

Merkel, who has championed strict austerity in Europe, backed Sarkozy in the elections.

“He will talk with the German chancellor because in that exchange lies the key to Europe’s recovery, redirecting Europe towards growth, competitiveness and protection,” Ayrault said.

A meeting of the so-called Group of Eight leading world economies on May 18 in the United States, could be the first opportunity to shake hands with President Barack Obama and other heads of state.

So Hollande won. Unsurprising, but let's not forget that ideologically speaking, the French are more right wing than socialist. A lot of the extreme right voters didn't vote today to give the one-finger salute to Sarkozy.

I wonder if these elections, along with the Greek ones, will influence the Eurocrisis a lot. Especially because Hollande seems less keen on working with Merkel, and the huge amount of parties in Greece getting votes means it will regrettably be fractured in such a hard time.

Red Communist Hollande Seizes Control Of France In An Electoral Coup!!!

EDIT: Those comments are just funny and worrying.

FRENCH COWS ARE SOCIALISTS. The French government is socialist, the people are socialists, ergo, the farms are socialists, thus, the cows are socialist too. That means the cheese is socialist, and the people eating the cheese become what they eat, are socialists, who elect a socialist government. Catch-22 of Socialism. Don't buy French Cheese. And don't accept OBarryO-Boy's US government cheese because it will make you a socialist.

The French chose a Socialist to help them with their debt problem? That's like hiring a pedophile to solve your babysitting problem.

Yes I do.
Do you know the meaning of the U.S.S.R.? Here, I'll help you....
Union of Soviet SOCIALISTS and Republic.

France now has a Socialist President and a country dominated and influenced by Mus lims........lordy, lordy this is gonna be fun.

I wouldn't be too sure that this won't help Obama. When the lefties in this country see that as a group their French counterparts were able to elect a commie, it might just encourage them to work harder to reelect his majesty in this country. You get bet the Obama administration are going to put a positive spin on this. The best hope for the rest of us is that the French Government implodes in the next 6 months.

FRENCH COWS ARE SOCIALISTS. The French government is socialist, the people are socialists, ergo, the farms are socialists, thus, the cows are socialist too. That means the cheese is socialist, and the people eating the cheese become what they eat, are socialists, who elect a socialist government. Catch-22 of Socialism. Don't buy French Cheese. And don't accept OBarryO-Boy's US government cheese because it will make you a socialist.

socialism works! look at China. don't bind yourself by old and rotten ideology. Capitalism worked when rich people were God-fearing. But they have not that fear of God anymore. They are turned to be animals. so they need to be reined as animals. we need to borrow some medicine from Socialism.

"watchfullvoter posted:

The French are just as uninformed as many here, about Socialism. I've been there a couple times. They live in apartments for the most part, don't have our standard of living, not prosperous either. I met a taxi driver who said he had a college degree in business from Sorbonne, but can't get a job because he wasn't born in France, he said that they pay lots of taxes and keep the lazy happy by paying them off, this was 10 years ago!.

Folks,let me clue you in on what the "Blood washed" already know. Our God said to Israel," I will bless those who Bless you and Curse those who Curse you". We all saw the on/off mike repartee about the Israeli premier. Obummer is next!!!

Mustang Officer posted:

Are you are a communist?

This has got to be fucking satire, it's too perfect.

Holy shit, this is probably the worst one of the lot.

mustang officer posted:

Socialism, communism makes no difference in France, dare I say most of Europe. The French are irrelevant and will be nothing but a foot note in history when they are overcome by their failed immigration policies of the past and become a MusIim nation in the next 25 years.

That one has to pack bigotry, ignorance, stupidity and intolerance into 2 sentances. Wonder what he'd do if he was reminded that several generations back he was likely from Europe.

Yes, because the European Union is a DISASTER, economically. Not because of countries like Greece or Italy falling into a recession, the whole system is fundamentally flawed. The monetary policies are centralised, meaning that they are controlled by one organ that is responsible for the entire Eurozone area, while the fiscal policies are decentralised, meaning that they are controlled by the member states independently. But, when member states have different fiscal policies, it creates an asynchronisation in the business cycle. While one state is in a boom the other might be on its way to a bust. Since these states have the same currency the centralised monetary policy can not set the interest rate to an appropriate level for both states since they are in a different position, where a change of the interest rate might benefit one state but is harmful for the other.

However, if one state has a higher population and a higher GDP and the other is less populated and has lesser GDP, the monetary policy will most likely benefit the former. And this is why the interest level set by the European Central Bank always seem to benefit Germany, UK and other big countries. They are more represented in the European Parliament since they have a higher population, so they can more effectively control the politics of the EU. Consequently, the "success" (or lack of the opposite) of Germany can't really be accredited to Merkel, she just happens to be the leader of the most populous European state.

Yes, because the European Union is a DISASTER, economically. Not because of countries like Greece or Italy falling into a recession, the whole system is fundamentally flawed. The monetary policies are centralised, meaning that they are controlled by one organ that is responsible for the entire Eurozone area, while the fiscal policies are decentralised, meaning that they are controlled by the member states independently. But, when member states have different fiscal policies, it creates an asynchronisation in the business cycle. While one state is in a boom the other might be on its way to a bust. Since these states have the same currency the centralised monetary policy can not set the interest rate to an appropriate level for both states since they are in a different position, where a change of the interest rate might benefit one state but is harmful for the other.

However, if one state has a higher population and a higher GDP and the other is less populated and has lesser GDP, the monetary policy will most likely benefit the former. And this is why the interest level set by the European Central Bank always seem to benefit Germany, UK and other big countries. They are more represented in the European Parliament since they have a higher population, so they can more effectively control the politics of the EU. Consequently, the "success" (or lack of the opposite) of Germany can't really be accredited to Merkel, she just happens to be the leader of the most populous European state.

Um, having a large economic output and briefly overtaking the US as biggest exporter of goods helps too.

The good news is that this could be the end for the Euro. The bad news is Socialism.

No, the bad news is that you are living in a fantasy world. The Euro is here to stay whether you like it or not, Hollande doesn't have the power to "end" the Euro. I don't like the Euro either, but I don't dream about it being abolished because that's very unrealistic.

Socialism isn't anything near to what Americans think it is. It is absolutely NOT related to communism, it has absolutely NOTHING against Capitalism and Free Market and is NOT at all what Obama is doing in the US (this is the closest you have to socialism, but it simply isn't).

I'm French and glad Sarkozy got his ass kicked out of France, he was an hypocritical son of a bitch, kept passing laws feeding the riches and stripping out foot by foot the middle class / low salaries of their rights using the crisis as an excuse. One of the first thing he did was boosting his salary by 110%, and then by 170%. Major asshole over here.
Now Hollande will probably do more for the people, but is not qualified to deal with our financial problems right now imo. If I have to give Sarkozy credits for something, that would be making sure we're still in relatively good shape in the E.U. by tightening our relations with Germany. I'm afraid Hollande will fuck this up.

I wished Jean Luc Mélanchon passed the first round. He's a far-left wing dude, rather honest and despite his attachment to some of the basic notions of communism, would have been much better suited for the task awaiting our new president.

Socialism isn't anything near to what Americans think it is. It is absolutely NOT related to communism, it has absolutely NOTHING against Capitalism and Free Market and is NOT at all what Obama is doing in the US (this is the closest you have to socialism, but it simply isn't).

I'm French and glad Sarkozy got his ass kicked out of France, he was an hypocritical son of a bitch, kept passing laws feeding the riches and stripping out foot by foot the middle class / low salaries of their rights using the crisis as an excuse. One of the first thing he did was boosting his salary by 110%, and then by 170%. Major asshole over here.
Now Hollande will probably do more for the people, but is not qualified to deal with our financial problems right now imo. If I have to give Sarkozy credits for something, that would be making sure we're still in relatively good shape in the E.U. by tightening our relations with Germany. I'm afraid Hollande will fuck this up.

I wished Jean Luc Mélanchon passed the first round. He's a far-left wing dude, rather honest and despite his attachment to some of the basic notions of communism, would have been much better suited for the task awaiting our new president.

You're right in saying that Socialism is not Communism, but to say it has nothing against Capitalism is pretty incorrect.

You're right in saying that Socialism is not Communism, but to say it has nothing against Capitalism is pretty incorrect.

Our "Parti Socialiste" (socialist party) never ever criticised / criticise our system as a whole. It fights for the rights of the middle / lower class (well, at least it used to). I'm used to my French conception of socialism, it's probably different in other countries aswell. You'd have to look at the "Front de Gauche" (far-left wing => Jean Luc Mélanchon) or "Front National" (far-right wing => Marine Le Pen) if you want people who'll fight against capitalist values.
Marine Le Pen is a lunatic tho and Mélanchon said Castro's Cuba was a fine democracy / Chavez was a great guy.

Our "Parti Socialiste" (socialist party) never ever criticised / criticise our system as a whole. It fights for the rights of the middle / lower class (well, at least it used to). I'm used to my French conception of socialism, it's probably different in other countries aswell. You'd have to look at the "Front de Gauche" (far-left wing => Jean Luc Mélanchon) or "Front National" (far-right wing => Marine Le Pen) if you want people who'll fight against capitalist values.
Marine Le Pen is a lunatic tho and Mélanchon said Castro's Cuba was a fine democracy / Chavez was a great guy.

Ah, well then you must have your own interpretation of Socialism, as many do.

I would agree with The Economist, Hollande is a rather dangerous man, and I bet many of you who support him here won't be equally optimistic in 4 years. One thing is for sure, with Hollande, the debt will increase dramatically by raised pension ages and loads of spending. No cuts in the budget will be made at all, and a sick 75% income tax on people earning over 1 million euro per year won't nearly cover the costs of government.